SCAPE
Leslea Kroll & Kyle Armstrong
Edmonton 2011, Video 3:15
An abstract polemic on the capitalist caused ecological disaster in our own backyards.
The impact on land, water and residents as a result of tar sands practices raises an international distress call: 'mayday, mayday, mayday'. The increased exploitation of resources in the extraction of dirty oil is a concern not only for central and northern Alberta, but the entire planet. SCAPE is the filmmakers' lament of the present that calls for a paradigm shift now and for our collective future: 'Gaia revolution/evolution the way.'
Comprised of original and found footage, the images are evidence of a planet on the edge of ecological and spiritual catastrophe with film altered and manipulated with chemical and erosive processes. The sound source, also altered through methods of natural and digital decay, is a Improperia by Alessandro Moreschi, "The Last Castrato," recorded in the Sistine Chapel in 1904.
LESLEA KROLL
Leslea Kroll is an Edmonton based writer and filmmaker. She is a graduate of the University of Alberta where she studied Sociology and English. In 1998, she won the annual Alberta Playwrights' Network award for her play Zed BC: Genus Lemus. Her other plays include Domesticatrix, The Fifth Chamber, Swallow, Auksenberg: Trial by Fury and White Count Up which aired on CBC Radio. Later this year her collection of poems, Sturgeon, will be published by Edmonton's Broken Arrow Press. Her writing can also be found online at vicoletters.blogspot.com
KYLE ARMSTRONG
Hailing from a farm outside of Youngstown, Alberta, Kyle Armstrong is a filmmaker working predominantly in short format non-narrative film frequently working with super8 and 16mm as well as lo-fi video. Largely self-taught, Armstrong frequently makes use of hand altering film techniques, using bleaches, dyes, scratches, paints, found footage and is now utilizing DIY digital optical printing methods. His films are influenced by filmmakers such as Stan Brakhage, Hollis Frampton, Bela Tarr, Alexander Sokurov, Guy Maddin and Andrei Tarkovsky. In July of 2010 Kyle Armstrong was invited by iconic Canadian auteur Guy Maddin to collaborate on and direct short films for Guy Maddin’s Hauntings project. Kyle is currently in pre-production on an auroral imaging film to be scored by avant/pop musician and producer Jim O’Rourke (Sonic Youth, Wilco, Gastr Del Sol). Kyle is currently a term instructor in the Design Studies Program at MacEwan University in Edmonton.
